The Long Game
by AdaSonata
Summary: (Sequel to Mind Games). Walter is recovering from his experiences with Collins and the strain is palpable on the whole team. How will this affect the future of Scorpion? And what happens when Collins finally resurfaces?
1. Pro: The Recap

**The Long Game**

**Summary:** (_Sequel to Mind Games_). Walter is recovering from his experiences with Collins and the strain is palpable on the whole team. How will this affect the future of Scorpion? And what happens when Collins finally resurfaces?

**Disclaimer:** This is a fan-fiction story of the TV Series: Scorpion, and is in no way affiliated with the actual story/series in any of the aforementioned media. All characters and other materials related to the show that are used are not intended to infringe on any Copyrights. Elemental-Zer0 takes sole responsibility for any mistakes or offence that may be taken but truly not meant. However, any characters that are not related to any copyrights are copyrighted to Elemental-Zer0, as are any adaptions/variations to the plot set out in the original author's story/plot.

**Authors Note:** Ok, so if you haven't read_** Mind Games**_, this might not make much sense to you. Better go read that first. :P

To my returning followers; thanks for your patience with this. I know I left you with quite the cliff hanger in Mind Games, so hopefully this gives you the closure you feel you need.

Updating may be sporadic; I've got a few projects on the go at the moment, including an original project that is taking off like a storm! More info on that if you ask for details.

Polite criticism welcome. No flames please. Thanks!

* * *

**Prologue:** The Recap

It had been a long and hard trip, but Collins was finally safe. Canada was as hospitable as he'd been promised and no one knew he was a wanted fugitive in this secluded, forest-based village. He was as out of the way as he could hope to be, and it felt so gratifying and free. Here, the ignorance of the world couldn't touch him and he could further his research in peace.

The car's engine sputtered out; aged and rusty, it had performed grudgingly to get him to his new home and he couldn't be more thankful, however he also couldn't wait to see the back of the old thing. While his funds had been incredibly high – _thanks to a very wealthy sponsor _– he couldn't risk standing out in anything flashy or noteworthy. This, along with other small changes seemed to help keep him under the radar. His beard was gone. Hair was now black and short into a buzz cut. His glasses had been destroyed in the blast that he'd set up at the Scorpion Headquarters and had since been replaced with dark brown contact lenses. He'd treated himself to a fake tan too. All of which gave him the appearance of a foreigner from South America rather than a North American Caucasian fugitive.

The new passport was genuine but the documents to procure it were fake but clearly convincing. A few bribes had given him stellar character references and his new name was now Johnathan Lee Smith. Even if the name didn't suit the foreign appearance, there were enough John Smiths who looked nothing like the ethnic origins of the name to make it convincing enough. While the authorities were trained to search the generic names first for fraudulent fugitives, Collins knew that they wouldn't be looking for a foreign looking John Smith. They'd overlook him without a second glance. Where better to hide than in a list they'd already marked as checked?

And even if they did spot him and recognise him, he was no longer in their jurisdiction and it would take months for an extradition case to go through. He also had three other forms of identity to confuse the authorities too, with a story that '_his ID had clearly been cloned by this Collins chap and that he'd like to get it sorted as soon as possible to get this man in custody._' It'd give him enough time to activate his back up escape plan and he'd be long gone by the time anyone pegged him as the actual Mark Collins that they were looking for.

It was a brilliant plan and he knew it.

He stared out of the dirty windshield at his new home for the foreseeable future, and sighed with contentment. Anything was better than that dilapidated warehouse he'd been staying in while setting up his various traps and research. It hadn't been very comfortable, nor had it been easy to get the equipment in place, or keep himself cleaned and fed. The money was good but he had a notoriety issue in the city, and couldn't move around or show his face too much or he'd have been caught. Nonetheless, the warehouse had done the job he'd needed it to do. Now his creature comforts would be met as a reward for the hard work he'd put into the whole project. In all honesty, the BBI project hadn't been his first interest when he was offered the chance to get his revenge on team Scorpion. But his client and sponsor – _a very rich and politically inclined Russian_ – had hired him for that sole reason. The vengeance was just a side dish that was more appetising to Collins than the main course.

He knew the implications of what could happen if the BBI research was perfected and sold as requested to his sponsor; the world would be at the man's mercy. And he wasn't a very nice man. But Collins had a few fail safes in place to keep himself safe in that eventuality. A few override commands built into the chips would ensure he would be forever required and forever protected from death as long as he kept his secrets close.

His only threat was Walter.

Walter was the only one who had just as much knowledge on the BBI chips as Collins did, and even though Collins had improved the design and capabilities of the chip, Walter was only a few study sessions away from deciphering it all and undoing his work. But Collins wasn't worried about that. The chip in Walter's head was his security blanket. He hadn't needed to, but he'd hooked the chip up to all of Walter's core body functions that kept him alive. If Walter wanted to live, he'd stay silent and do nothing. If he didn't, he'd be too dead to do anything about it.

Not that Collins wanted Walter dead. He hadn't gone to all that effort to just kill off a key player. Once upon a time, Walter had been a close friend and dear co-worker. It wasn't often Collins felt that level of respect for someone. Which was why it had been such a shame that those so-called friends of Walter's had interfered and diluted the genius brain of his friend.

Collins eyed the house before him as he sat in the car, thoughts circling around his friend and his project. It was a nice house; old, in a sturdy and homely way. Built to last and withstand the brisk country Canadian weather. With heavy lumbar fascia's, and compacted stone base walls that were no doubt holding the basement in perfect place. There was also a small porch decking at the front with a rook that doubled as a balcony for the guest room. The front door was a heavy oak door and had been treated with a dark varnish to match the lumbar facets. It was a handsome house. strong, bold and ready to keep its tenants safe.

Just what Collins needed.

His sponsor had no idea about this house. They'd offered him a studio flat in one of the major cities, no doubt kitted with all the spyware they could afford – _which would have been a lot_ – and Collins was not about to have his work stolen from him after all this progress.

He'd accepted the flat via email but had no intention on ever stepping into the place. He wasn't an idiot. The second he stepped over the threshold of that flat, there'd be a team to bring him whatever he needed, negating his need to leave the place and then the spyware would steal his codes, passwords and data. Then he would be canon fodder for any repercussions that came up.

No thank you.

Collins huffed a sigh and cranked open the car door. It opened with a resistant whine but allowed him to exit the vehicle without further protest. He quickly grabbed his duffel bags and headed inside the house. It was cold outside, as was to be expected now that he was that much further north but the house was warm and inviting. He smiled to himself and set to work setting up his computer system in the basement. He couldn't wait to watch the footage of his old friends trying to solve his genius puzzles.

He set the video playback up onto the main screen and fetched himself a coffee from the upstairs kitchen before sitting back on his leather backed desk chair and pressing play.

The first scenes of the laser room were as he'd expected. The looks on the faces of those attempting to thwart him were priceless. He couldn't hold back the chuckles as Toby's incredulous looks of surprise and disbelief flashed across the screen. As predicted, Paige would be the one to attempt the impossible flexes and twists to get to the other side… but that's when Collins felt the first pang of concern. Paige stopped in the middle of the room and pulled up the panel that was not supposed to be pulled up. It didn't bode well that the team had found a loophole on the first trap.

He watched with bated breath as the lasers went out and then predictably the lever wouldn't work to free the drowning girl. Collins leaned in close to the screen, worry marring his tanned brows as he urged the team to get the girl out. He might be a sadistic twist of a man but he wasn't a murderer. Not that his victims knew that but still.

He breathed a sigh of relief when they macgyvered a small bomb to free the girl. He sat back in his chair again and sipped at the coffee as he watched the rest of the footage play out.

The maze was next. But right at the start, he realised something else had gone wrong. The TV had shorted. The water from above had leaked through the floor. Of course, it would. The lever was supposed to drain it away, not leave the tank and flood the room. Damn it.

Luckily Happy had fixed it up so they could hear his message. As he watched the puzzles unfold, he sipped and snacked as though watching a movie. Sylvester and the snake pit had been entertaining but an easy solve. The drama with that homeland guy being bitten was interesting, and watching Toby in action never failed to impress even Collins. Grudgingly. The periodic table was funny to watch, seeing the team hopping in a single file across the board was a sight. And the mad dash to the door at the end of the room was hilarious. He found himself sobering though when he realised that the cage knot that the damn baby was inside had come loose. He watched, glued to the screen until the baby was safe. He breathed again and found himself wondering about Walter's set up. So far, his two victims had come very close to a death he hadn't planned for. And Walter's room had been fairly hastily put together.

The knot of concern grew as the team ventured toward the room of switches.

The events that followed confirmed his fears, and Collins watched on the edge of his seat as the final switch shorted out. Walter's condition had rapidly gone downhill, a lot sooner than he'd anticipated. In hindsight, a little first aid could have helped prevent this mess of a situation.

And then Walter seized. Collins' heart almost stopped.

This was not how the plan should be going.

The screen showed Happy breaking the glass and his heart almost stopped again in fear of the bomb he'd set up going off. And it was here that Collins was thankful for his shoddy work not working properly. All that work, to be blown up would have been such a waste. Not to mention his strange sentimental attachment to the man who was being rescued. He followed them through the camera footage as they raced back through the building and his various traps and then he lost sight of them once they left in the ambulance.

In a panic, he quickly searched all of the hospitals' servers for a patient matching Walter's bio-metrics but found none. He cursed to himself. They must have taken him to a Homeland infirmary which was off the usual public grid. It'd take some intricate digging, but it wasn't impossible to hack their system and learn what they did to save Walter.

On a whim, he tried the bugs he'd placed in the garage but none of them pinged back. They'd done a bug sweep and cleaned up properly too. Damn. He was sure that at least one or two had been well hidden.

He had no choice. He had to log into the chip.

There were a few reasons he was reluctant to do this right away. One was that he knew the chip was intricately linked to Walter's major organs and if he logged in mid surgery then all sorts of programming errors could become an issue and cause more harm than Collins was really willing to initiate.

And if the team were working on figuring out the chip, logging into it might make them aware of his presence and he wasn't ready to give them anymore details than they'd already figured out. But his options were now limited. He had to know the status of the chip and what its programming had done to his first test subject. It was vital research data and would determine his next actions in his grand plan, the long game.

He switched computers, this one was masked and under heavy lock and key to prevent back hacking and reverse tracking. He opened the program he'd created and loaded the home screen. He clicked on the connect button and waited several beats for the connection to load.

**_Error – Could not connect to device_**

'_What?_'

He clicked again. Knowing his connection to the dark web and the internet in general was secure and strong.

**_Error – Could not connect to device_**

"No, no, no-no-no, noooo…" He muttered under his breath as he tried again and again to connect to his creation. Every click presented him with the error message.

"NO!" He cried out in frustration as he threw the nearest thing on his desk into the wall. His coffee cup shattered in a spray of ceramic and dark liquid but he paid it no heed; his eyes glued to the error message on his screen with a furious glare. His mind worked a mile a minute at his next options. He'd need another test subject. Another chip.

Another six months to plan the whole operation from scratch.

"Damn you, Scorpion."


	2. Ch1: The Recovery Plan

**The Long Game**

**Summary:** (_Sequel to __**Mind Games**_). Walter is recovering from his experiences with Collins and the strain is palpable on the whole team. How will this affect the future of Scorpion? And what happens when Collins finally resurfaces?

**Disclaimer:** This is a fan-fiction story of the TV Series: Scorpion, and is in no way affiliated with the actual story/series in any of the aforementioned media. All characters and other materials related to the show that are used are not intended to infringe on any Copyrights. Elemental-Zer0 takes sole responsibility for any mistakes or offence that may be taken but truly not meant. However, any characters that are not related to any copyrights are copyrighted to Elemental-Zer0, as are any adaptions/variations to the plot set out in the original author's story/plot.

**Authors Note:** Ok, so as you can imagine, writing this and another fic at the same time means that some chapters will flow like a dream while others are held up by my inspiration for the other story. It's not that I don't have inspiration for this story, quite the opposite, but I don't have much for the other so when inspiration hits for that one, it's kind of like a _write-it-or-lose-it_ deal. Hope you can understand, really appreciate your patience with this.

Polite criticism welcome. No flames please. Thanks!

* * *

**Chapter One: **_The Recovery Plan_

It had been six months since he woke up in a strange hospital room with a strange angel peering over him. Six long months of trying to understand what had happened to him and how it had impacted him and those who orbited his reality. Six frustrating months of trying to get his life back in some semblance of order.

His injuries had been mostly shrapnel related, which had become infected but with time and a boatload of antibiotics his body had healed pretty well. He only had a few scars where some of the shrapnel wounds had cut a little deeper than the rest. The encephalitis had also calmed down as the infections were treated. He still got random headaches, but it wasn't as bad as having your brain trying to escape through your ears…

Not a fun experience.

But, while his body may have healed, his mind was an unknown factor. His memories were the main problem. He could recall almost everything before Scorpion had fully become operational (_apparently, that had been four years ago_) but from that point onward, his memories were patchy and incomplete. He could recall some scenes with ease and accuracy, but others were vague, and some were just not present at all.

He could also recall his colleagues and who they were except for three. He knew Toby, Happy and Sylvester. They had been his acquaintances long before Scorpion had been set up. Cabe was a frustrating mix of shock and confusion. He'd had patchy memories of forgiving him for the transgressions he'd vividly remembered, but he couldn't remember what had led him to forgiving the man. But he did recall the stronger father-son relationship he had with the man, so was grateful, nonetheless.

One of those he couldn't recall properly was the chemist; Florence. He'd been told she was the newest and most recent member of Scorpion, and there seemed to be mixed feelings in the group when her name came up. He wasn't sure what to feel about her other than the fact she was like him; abrupt, to the point, and brutally honest.

Then there was Paige. And by proxy, Ralph.

He had no recollection of either of them.

At all.

Which he found immeasurably frustrating, because she was a woman who seemed very hard to just _forget_. For reasons he couldn't understand, his eyes always found her in the room, his body was always aware of where she was in relation to him. It was like he was always orbiting her, and she had a gravitational mass that drew him to her like a satellite to a planet.

After a deeply emotional conversation, where she cried a lot and he had no idea what to do or say, he found out that they'd been working together for the past four years and had even dated in the last year. He'd also discovered that they'd had a falling out merely a few weeks before the whole mess that had brought them all back together. She'd been open and honest with him about everything. And he couldn't give her anything back.

She'd asked him for forgiveness, and for a second chance…

…and he had to refuse her. He didn't know her. And he couldn't give her the Walter she knew. It wasn't fair to either of them. He just couldn't remember her.

And it was the same with Ralph. He was the most intriguing young boy he'd ever had the pleasure to interact with but despite his friend's assurances, and the boy's knowledge of his habits and code style, Walter couldn't recall him at all. It was like someone had gone into his memories and plucked out just the ones where both Paige and Ralph had been involved.

Toby had explained that it was theoretically possible considering the chip in his head had been built by a man who saw the two as the biggest threat to his plans for Walter. And the chip was another thing that confused him. It was causing all sorts of headaches, both literally and figuratively. It seemed that the chip resonated with anything that had a magnetic or electrical field. Car journeys made him feel nauseous. Computers were a little overwhelming after a few hours unless they'd been insulated - _like they'd had to do to the ones in the garage_. Mobile phones* were annoying, as were , radios, and many more everyday equipment he used to take for granted.

_Meditation_ had been prescribed by his GP. He'd, of course, snorted at the idea, but tried it anyway as the pain meds didn't seem to be helping much. He was surprised to find it had helped a little; something about the stillness and quiet seemed to ease his frustrations and he found himself delving into his memories -_ the ones he still retained that is _\- and being able to analyse where the gaps were.

About a month into his recovery, he'd tried to force the memories to come back a few times, as any selective amnesiac would. The first time, however, had been a very painful trip to the A&E. The chip had basically reacted negatively, and Walter had ended up seizing again. The other times he'd tried he'd ended up with the same result, but his friends were well versed by this point and an ambulance was not required. Just bed rest and Toby's never-ending glib remarks by his bedside as he medically managed the symptoms.

However, even when he wasn't actively trying to remember, the seizures weren't completely inactive. He had moments where he'd spaced out completely: absence seizures, Toby had called them. It was alarming to watch; Walter would just stop mid-sentence and stare into the ether, then after an unpredictable amount of time, he'd continued where he left off as though nothing had happened. Walter wasn't even aware of them.

Toby had described to him, how intertwined the chip had been implanted and how he'd struggled to remove what he could. He'd also admitted that brain surgery wasn't his forte, but he had been the only qualified medical genius available at the time of the surgery, and time had not been on their side. After conversing with other trained brain physicians, he'd been assured that they would have made the same assumptions and actions as Toby had done and that for not having a complete degree in the field, Toby had done incredibly well given the circumstances.

And that had been comforting, if not slightly concerning.

So, in the six months he'd been awake and healing, he'd discovered that he'd been kidnapped, forced to take part in an experimental procedure against his will, lost all memories to do with the love of his life and her son, and had an allergy to anything electrical or magnetised. And he was susceptible to seizures too, which meant he'd had to surrender his drivers license on top of it all.

It wasn't quite Scorpion standards.

In line with the seizures, and the chip's problems, Scorpion had put their collective IQ points together to come up with a brilliant solution. For the time being anyway, until they could remove the chip completely without due harm.

A smart watch.

Or a modified, Scorpion-styled, genius watch. Because it wasn't just smart, it was genius. According to Toby.

The watch was your basic top of the range Smart watch with some obvious modifications. It held a dampener broadcasting system that would create a wi-fi, radio, digital, or telecom signal dead-zone for any device that was not registered with the device. It would be a minor inconvenience for anyone stood within a five-foot radius of him except for the devices and software they'd set the system to recognise as safe and authorised. It meant that their comms units, phones, radios and wireless would work around him but nothing else could hijack, hack, or irritate the chip in his head.

The watch also monitored his health and body reactions by using the chip itself. With the chip having been intertwined with his whole body, it was not hard to hack the rudimentary software and find the readings it was collecting from Walter's body. Convert that to a format that the watch could record and store in its interface and have that linked to all their phones, and you had a Walter alarm if anything untoward happened. It made it easier to know when Walter was having an absence seizure or if he was just lost in his thoughts.

It also had the usual smart watch features; a GPS function, text and call alerts, calories, steps, and so on. It made managing Walter much easier and kept the annoying interference to a minimum for Walter too.

Except, now Walter felt like a burden and that "_big brother_" was watching at all times.

It was a crap hand to be dealt and felt more like something out of a crazy TV show or something, but Walter was now stuck with it and was prepared to deal with it the best he could. He looked up at the group before him, working like a well-oiled machine around him as he sat on the sofa, 'resting' more for their peace of mind than his own physical requirement. It felt like home, but he couldn't piece the journey together. And life was all about the journeys we took, not the destination.

"How're ya doing kid?" The voice brought Walter back to his senses with a jolt. It was Cabe who had appeared from behind the sofa Walter was sat on. The older man, carefully brought himself around to the front and sat in the space next to Walter, sighing to himself as he let his body relax into the worn leatherette.

"Um… yeah. Good." Walter found himself fumbling with his words every now and then when things took him by surprise. Toby said it was normal, but Walter took little solace from that. Nothing about his situation was normal.

Cabe gave him a long glance before reaching forward and placing his coffee mug on the coffee table in front of them. "Would you like to try that again with more confidence, or maybe tell me the truth instead?" He asked bluntly, and Walter looked away. The feeling he felt inside bubbled around in his chest, but he found it difficult to identify what it was and how to deal with it. As a result, he felt on edge and jittery. But how could he describe that to Cabe who was old school and couldn't understand a feeling without putting a name to it?

"I don't know what I'm feeling." Walter finally said, deciding that being honest and plain was the best way forward. He stared at a fixed point opposite him as he spoke; his eyes resting on a hook stuck to the post that supported the stairs to his abode on the first floor. It was probably used as a tool hook in the building's previous incarnation but was now being utilised as a calendar hook for Paige's desk. "It's there, in my chest." He continued, his gaze unwavering from the hook. "It's tight and fizzing but I don't know what it is or what to do with it." He admitted. And as he finished, Happy stepped into his view line and planted herself in his field of vision.

"You two ready?" She asked in her clipped, no nonsense way. Walter looked up to meet her gaze, puzzled for a moment before he remembered what they had all been preparing for.

Today they were officially reopening Scorpion for business and had prepared a little party to celebrate the occasion. There were some faces he didn't immediately recognise but was sure someone would reintroduce him at some point during the festivities. He gave a quick smile and stood up. He ignored the wash of vertigo when it tilted his world for a second before disappearing.

"Yeah," he replied, and she gave him a quick smile before heading to the group that had gathered by the front of the garage, where two tables had been set up with food, drinks and a cake. Cabe struggled a little but was up quicker than he used to be after he'd first been released from the hospital a few months back. Walter allowed him to go first, following after him as they made their way to the group.

"Well, now that the gang's all back together, I say we raise a toast!" Toby said jubilantly as he handed Walter a plastic champagne flute. Walter took it but had no intention of drinking it. He didn't think alcohol would help the strange fluttering feeling in his chest any. He stood awkwardly next to Paige who gave a convincing smile, and Ralph who gave him a blank look. Walter tried to remember the boy, he really did, but someone had cleared the recycle bin on the desktop of his mind and it was just unrecoverable. Ralph looked away, the hurt unmistakable even to an emotional brick like Walter. The bubbling in his chest grew more uncomfortable and raucous, to the point where he missed what Toby had toasted to, and just raised his glass when the others did. He plastered a quick smile on his face and pretended to take a sip of the cheap champagne. He was aware that he hadn't convinced Ralph, but he remained quiet on the matter.

The fluttering in his chest tightened again.

It was difficult, pretending to be fine when all he wanted to do was scream and shout his frustrations and take back the missing memories that haunted and taunted him from their ethereal whereabouts. It pained him to admit that this was his way of life now. He was completely and utterly reliant on this group of people for his everyday routines. And none of them knew how to connect with him again.

It was a depressing thought.


	3. Ch2: The First Case Back (Part 1)

**The Long Game**

**Summary:** (_Sequel to __**Mind Games**_). Walter is recovering from his experiences with Collins and the strain is palpable on the whole team. How will this affect the future of Scorpion? And what happens when Collins finally resurfaces?

**Disclaimer:** This is a fan-fiction story of the TV Series: Scorpion, and is in no way affiliated with the actual story/series in any of the aforementioned media. All characters and other materials related to the show that are used are not intended to infringe on any Copyrights. Elemental-Zer0 takes sole responsibility for any mistakes or offence that may be taken but truly not meant. However, any characters that are not related to any copyrights are copyrighted to Elemental-Zer0, as are any adaptions/variations to the plot set out in the original author's story/plot.

**Authors Note:** Ok, so its been a long time since I last updated. My sincerest apologies. First was the Christmas period, then I was in the middle of moving to a new house at the end of Jan and beginning of Feb, and I have also been distracted with learning lines for a play I'm in – (We're doing Dick Whittington and I'm playing the lead Fairy against the Rat King) – very stressful few months.

But I'm back and hopefully will resume a relatively frequent update pace again. No concrete promises, but I'm gonna try.

Polite criticism welcome. No flames please. Thanks!

* * *

**Chapter Two: **_The First Case Back (Part 1)_

It had been several days since the re-launch of Scorpion 3.0. It was, and still is, a very unusual ambience, with unanswered guilt marred by the lack of memories they pertained to. The lack of closure was weighing heavy with them all, but they could only hope that Walter regained enough of his memories given time, so that the closure could eventually happen.

Paige drifted from the bathroom and over toward her desk. Everyone had disappeared for the night, but she and Ralph were staying over at the Garage that night as per the rota Sylvester had worked hard on. It had been agreed that for the foreseeable future, Walter was not to be left alone for more than a few days at a time. The newly installed, Genius upgraded, security system would be the fail-safe companion when Walter had his alone days, but for all the others, he had at least one of his team members slumping it on the couch or in the spare bed upstairs.

Walter had at first vehemently fought this proposal but when he realised that he'd been out voted and outnumbered on the matter, there was little he could do except sulk over it. His last attempt to escape for a few hours on his own had led the team into a full-blown panicked search party which eventually found him at the beach in a half coma due to a seizure that had taken him by surprise. That had been the moment that Walter had decided that wearing the smart watch at the very least was an acceptable compromise. Though he still sulked about the constant mothering from everyone.

Paige could understand his frustration; he was a very 'in-control' kind of personality, so to have no control over his own mind and body, let alone how his time was spent was going to be frustrating and annoying on several levels. She sighed as she stopped at her desk and leaned against the wooden frame, her attention had been taken by the scene opposite her.

Walter had fallen asleep on the communal couch a few hours ago and Paige was loathe to wake him up to move him to his own bed. Her relationship with Walter was still rocky. He didn't know her. Even after six long months of recuperating and random other memories resurfacing, the ones of her, and heart-wrenchingly of her son, were still locked away in his head somewhere.

While Toby had said that the chip might be involved somehow, he also had privately admitted to Paige that perhaps the trauma of the "event" that had split the team up so drastically, might be acting as a suppressor too. He'd encouraged Paige to talk about it as openly as she can with Walter to see if she couldn't coax the memories out from hiding.

She'd tried. She'd had a very open and honest conversation with Walter about their relationship. And about how it had all ended. She held nothing back. She splurged the truth on him and left nothing to the imagination. But he still shook his head and apologised for not being able to remember any of it.

What really broke her heart was how he skirted around not just herself, but with Ralph too. She knew Ralph understood logically what had happened, but Ralph had a low EQ score too which meant that he wasn't able to understand the emotions he felt with Walter's sudden distance from him. She could see he was struggling to equate his emotions with the logic present, and it was tearing her apart to watch him withdraw from the one person who had helped him emerge from his intellectual cage all those years ago. But she didn't know what to do. She couldn't reach the Walter she knew.

Instead, all she could do was watch the sleeping man and wait, hoping that his memories returned soon. Her eyes threatened tears as she recalled all their treasured moments together; the unintended romance, the attempts at intended romance (that were complete disasters but were still so sweet nonetheless), and all the adventures they'd had that had just reinforced what she felt for the man.

She was grateful in a way; while they'd been rescuing him from the glass tube thing, she'd had the opportunity to apologise in a small way. It had been quick, but emotional. She recalled it now, how she'd held her hand to the glass encasing him as they spoke softly. He hadn't been completely awake at the time she'd realised how wrong she'd been. There was no faking that dopey smile with so much truth serum inside him. She didn't need him to tell her the truth at that point. It had been so obvious.

She'd let her jealousy and self-consciousness dictate what she had wanted to see instead of seeing the truth for what it was. That moment had been so sweet and now it felt so bittersweet. He had no recollection at all after the seizure.

And he'd only caused more when trying to remember her.

"Mom?" Ralph's quiet voice woke her from her thoughts. She turned to find the young genius walking over to her from the bottom of the steps that lead to Walter's converted apartment.

It had taken a whole month to remove all the broken furniture and clean all the shrapnel up. It had taken another two weeks to redecorate and reinforce the structures that had taken the brunt of the explosive force. Another week after that had the team installing the security system into place. That had been a confusing process to follow. All the technical jargon and equations had gone straight over her head but she did know that she had to remember an extremely long password that kept changing every other week in order to get into the garage, and she had to have a key-fob on her person when entering and exiting otherwise the abrasive alarm would go off.

It was all a pain, and frustrating to remember, but she'd do it without complaint if it kept Walter safe from Collins.

"Hey baby, what's up?" She asked as her son stilled by her side and let his gaze fall upon the sleeping man on the couch. Ralph was quiet for a moment, apparently trying to find the correct words to voice his response. Communication on an emotional level was still no-mans-land to all of the geniuses, and that unfortunately included Ralph much to Paige's distress.

"Why did he forget me?" He finally asked. His voice was small, fragile and as soon as he had asked the question, Paige felt her tears return, and this time the threat wasn't idle. "I mean," Ralph continued, still staring at Walter and unaware of his mother's tears for the moment. "I can kind of understand why he'd forget you. You were the one he had an argument with." He said, unable to understand that he'd accidentally insulted his mother – who could never take it to heart – but he continued speaking as he turned his attention to his mother. "But I didn't. So why did he forget me too?" He asked. "What did I do wrong?" he added as his own watery eyes found hers.

Paige moved before she knew she was able to and pulled him into a reaffirming hug. She squeezed tightly and let her own tears fall but she held back the sobs that threatened to overwhelm her. Instead she sniffed them back and crouched herself down to Ralph's level. "Honey, you did nothing wrong." She said and intended to say more but Ralph spoke up first.

"Then why won't he remember me?" He asked innocently. "He can, the evidence is all there." He added, his brain had been going over all the other memories that had come back. The ones around Paige and himself, so logically thinking, those of his mom and himself were in there too, right?

"Sweetie. He's trying. I don't know why he can't yet, but he will. Toby says its possible, and who knows how the human brain works better than Toby?" She said as she stroked her son's hair out of his face.

"I've been thinking about that, too." Ralph admitted, hesitantly. "I know that Mr Collins put the BBI chip into Walter's brain." Paige cringed a little at Collins' name coming from her son but let it pass in order to hear what Ralph had to say. "And I know it was modified and not put together very well too. And Toby _is_ a human brain expert, but he's not a tech expert like Walter and I am. I know Sylvester is also an expert with coding but he's not as good as Walter and me." Paige had already felt herself fixing to refuse the request that she knew was coming, but past experiences had taught her that Ralph was full of surprises, so she continued to listen. "And since Walter is not feeling well enough, that leaves only me as the expert. If I can just take a look at the system and the coding for the chip, maybe I can help bring Walter back to the way he was before you broke his heart and he broke yours?" Paige felt her chest constrict tightly but had to bite back the sob when Walter gave a soft snore and shifted a little on the sofa. Ralph's attention went to Walter too which gave Paige a moment to compose herself briefly before she answered her son's question.

"I know you want to help sweetie. I'm sure you probably can too. But this isn't a computer game or security system that you'd be playing with." Paige began and gave Ralph's shoulder a gentle squeeze. "This is Walter's brain. You'd be playing around with a person's life. I trust you to know what you're doing with games and computers, but if you mess up or make a mistake on a computer, we can throw it out and buy a new one. We can't do that with Walter." She could never put that burden on her son. She knew he was very capable, but if he made the slightest mistake… it'd be his fault Walter was worse off, she couldn't let him go through something like that.

"But what if we built a copy of the chip? I could work on that without any problems to Walter, and then when we find a solution, we can just upload it to the chip in Walter's head. It'd be a safe way to get the answers." Ralph argued back and Paige had to admit, she couldn't fault his logic. She held his gaze a for a few minutes before turning he attention back to the genius on the couch. She desperately wanted the old Walter back, they all did. But to mess around with something so dangerous in his head… She didn't want to lose what little they still had of him.

"We'll run it past Toby and Sly tomorrow. I'm not saying yes. I'm saying that if they think it's a good idea, then we'll try it." She relented. She wasn't happy about the idea of getting Ralph's hopes up for nothing, but if the other big brains thought it was worth a try, then who was she to stand in the way of progress? It wasn't that Ralph didn't have credibility, she just wanted to be sure it was the right thing to try before setting her son up for a potential fail. "Now, you need to go to bed, you have school in the morning. And I need to wake sleeping beauty up, so he doesn't get a stiff back." She said, changing the topic entirely.

Ralph gave her a quick smile and the obligatory hug goodnight before making his way back up the stairs to the spare bed that he and his mom were staying in that night. Paige watched him go before turning her eyes back to the man on the couch. Her thoughts raced again with the idea of Ralph fixing him. She missed her Walter terribly. The sweet, goofy, bumbling idiot that didn't know how to love with tact and grace. The genius that can't stop his own brain from reducing scary complications to simple facts and finding solutions that no one would think to imagine. The emotionally stunted man who had a heart bigger than even he could comprehend.

She missed him so much.

"Please Walter." She whispered under her breath when she was sure no one could hear her. "Please, come back to me."

* * *

It was early the following morning when all three were woken from their slumber. Cabe strolled into the Garage with a slam of the door with Sylvester only a second behind him. They were arguing over whether Scorpion was ready for a new case when Paige finally made it down the stairs. She'd hastily gotten dressed and had set Ralph on his morning routine before making her appearance in the office space.

"I just don't know if we're ready to perform like we used to. What if Walter has a seizure?" Sylvester was saying as she approached the two.

"That's why Toby said to have him paired with someone at all times." Cabe replied. "Besides, I know Walter. He's not gonna want to sit tight while some tragedy happens when he could have done something to prevent it." And Cabe had a point.

"But _seizures_ Cabe. If he has one while rappelling down a cliff side or swimming to shore or running from a bomb… he's dead!" Sylvester argued back. And Paige had to admit, Sylvester had a point too. A very scary one.

"Then we just make sure we don't go near any bombs or cliffs." Cabe replied candidly. "Are you telling me, you have a sure-fire way of stopping him from doing something he wants to do? Because if you are, I'm all ears. For now, I don't think even mother nature could stop him when he sets his mind on something." Cabe added and Paige felt this argument beginning to circle into a pattern that could potentially spiral.

"Maybe, for now, we just work easy cases and see how we go?" She said as a compromise. Sylvester seemed reluctant to let the topic go but found the compromise inarguable. "What's this case about Cabe?" Paige asked, redirecting their attention to the topic at hand.

"Some geographers have recorded some strange seismographic readings in a cave system about twelve miles south of Florida's most famous attraction. They want a few experts to verify their suspicions in order to close a small area down for extra investigations." Cabe replied and Sylvester's eyes almost lit up with mixed excitement and fear.

"Are we going to Disney World?" He asked, just as Toby and Happy walked into the Garage with young Amberle in her pushchair. After the first initial rescue of the young girl, staff had been stretched in the Homeland Security office to babysit the child until Child Protective Services could be contacted. In that time Happy had looked after the child and a pseudo bond had formed. Toby's initial response was reluctance but couldn't stop himself from forming an attachment to the young rescuee too. A compromise had been found with Cabe's help. Toby and Happy would foster the child until CPS could find her some adoption parents.

"Woah, whoa, whoa… No 'D' word around the infant." Toby said, having only heard the last word of Sylvester's outburst. "Unless we are going, in which case I've gotta pack!" He said with an excitable glee in his eyes. Happy's slap to his arm, however, brought him back down from cloud nine. "Ow!" He bemoaned without any real emotion.

"No, but we'll be in the same area. I'm sure once we've finished the case, there'll be time for you to visit the place but Homeland ain't buying your ticket in." Cabe replied with his no nonsense drawl of an accent.

"Wait. We have a case?" Happy asked as she set the brakes on the stroller and checked that Amberle was not going to get into any trouble. "Is that wise?" She added.

"Depends on the case." Toby replied, "What're we doing in sunny Florida aside from missing out on the experience of a lifetime?" He added with a snarky grin.

"Cave exploring for earth rumbles." Paige summarised just as Ralph appeared with a banana for breakfast. "Someone wants us to check seismographs and stability readings. They think it might pose a threat to the park." She added quickly as she fetched her keys from her purse. It was time to take Ralph to school. "I'll be back in half an hour. Walter's still asleep. Would someone mind waking him up?" She asked as she herded Ralph out the door.

"Toby. Get sleeping beauty down here will ya?" Cabe delegated as he steered Sylvester over to a computer and asked him to find the coordinates that he'd been given by his contact at the Homeland HQ. Toby gave a sigh before heading up to the refurbished apartment.

Their first case as Scorpion 3.0 had to be compelling, exciting but also not overwhelming. With Walter's current issues, it would be bad enough. But if they made national news or advertised too loudly, it might bring them to the attention of Collins again. And Toby was not certain how that showdown might affect the team. They were only just sticking together as it was…

Another trauma, might just spell the end of Scorpion entirely.


	4. Ch3: The First Case Back (Part 2)

**The Long Game**

**Summary:** (_Sequel to __**Mind Games**_). Walter is recovering from his experiences with Collins and the strain is palpable on the whole team. How will this affect the future of Scorpion? And what happens when Collins finally resurfaces?

**Disclaimer:** This is a fan-fiction story of the TV Series: Scorpion, and is in no way affiliated with the actual story/series in any of the aforementioned media. All characters and other materials related to the show that are used are not intended to infringe on any Copyrights. Elemental-Zer0 takes sole responsibility for any mistakes or offence that may be taken but truly not meant. However, any characters that are not related to any copyrights are copyrighted to Elemental-Zer0, as are any adaptions/variations to the plot set out in the original author's story/plot.

**Authors Note:** Ok, so its not my usual length, and for that I'm sorry. I've had inspiration hit elsewhere and that has been blocking my progress with this project. Y'all know what that's like right? I wrote this a few weeks before I was blocked by this other story, so I thought I'd give you lot something to tide you over until I can get my groove back with this story. Please bear with me while I ride this other story to a point where I can refocus on this one.

Polite criticism welcome. No flames please. Thanks!

* * *

**Chapter Three: **_The First Case Back (Part 2)_

The flight to Orlando, Florida was a long four hours and 42 minutes. Sylvester had happily volunteered to remain at the garage with Florence for this case. A choice all other members of Scorpion were not jealous of. Paige was a little concerned with how the two would manage to look after Amberle and Ralph while the rest of the team were away but what other choice did they have? Ralph at least could keep himself out of trouble. For that, she was grateful.

When they finally regrouped in the arrivals lounge, there was a Homeland Security issued SUV already waiting for them. Cabe managed the introductions before the team piled into the vehicle and fell into an exhausted lull while the driver took them to the nearest hotel to the caves.

When they arrived at the hotel, there were four keys on the desk waiting for them.

Four keys. Four rooms.

The jolt was heavy in Paige's chest. She'd be in a room on her own. It was these little things that were the most jarring. Usually she'd be in with either Walter (when they were together), or Happy (when she and Toby weren't together).

She tried to let it go, but a small part of her just couldn't help it when she found that her room was right next door to Walter's room.

Gotta love the little things.

She set her holdall down on the bed and moved to stand by the window. She stared at the view for a moment, taking in the stillness while it lasted. No doubt that come tomorrow, when they ventured down to the caves, the noise, mayhem, and – heavens forbid – drama would follow them. It always did with a Scorpion case. No matter the precautions taken, or lessons learned.

Could Walter cope with all that? Would he remember anything familiar? It wasn't the first time they'd been spelunking in caves, so was it safe to assume that something might spark a memory here? She'd spoken with Toby about it at length on the plane ride across, and Toby had been certain that it was very likely. But then he'd assured her that that was why he'd made sure he was on the field team to; in case Walter had a memory seizure. As scary as they looked, Paige had come to learn that seizures were not that complicated to manage. They were annoying, disruptive, and paid no heed to one's plans or desire. They could be very dangerous if left unattended, or if the patient fell funny or off a high platform. But they were fairly easy to ride through from an outside perspective. She'd never pertain to knowing or understanding the experience from the patient's point of view, but from her own side of the fence, it was simple.

Step one: Guide the patient's fall if they fall near you and you can catch them.

Step two: Protect the patient's head but do not restrain the body as this could cause further injury.

Step three: Time the seizure. If it goes on for longer than seven or eight minutes, call an ambulance.

Step four: Speak softly and reassuringly to the patient during the whole experience. It's likely that they will be able to hear you at some point. They will also feel very confused for a few minutes until they realise what happened.

And then finally, don't be alarmed if the patient falls into a short-lived coma. The flailing and seizing of muscles, is often exhausting and the patient may not be able to stand or sit without aid, and in extreme scenarios, will fall asleep against their own will.

Toby's crash course in seizure handling had been very informative and Paige had found herself taking more than just mental notes. He'd held the impromptu class early one morning while Walter had been in the shower, mainly to save Walter the awkwardness of the whole topic. He was still sensitive about the whole thing.

All in all, Toby was fairly confident that if anything happened, Walter would be ok. So Really what did Paige have to worry about?

She didn't know, but she just couldn't shake the feeling that they were about to walk into a nightmare.

Again.

* * *

Morning came without preamble and the team were sat in the breakfast lounge of the hotel ready for a day of cave exploration and seismology 101. Happy was busy ticking boxes in her head about what equipment they needed to take to the cave and matching it to what they had in the cases they'd brought with them. Cabe was reading the local newspaper, while Toby was digging into a hearty breakfast of pancakes and bacon rashers. He'd been the last one down and so was now just finishing his breakfast.

Walter was 'absent' at the table. He was interacting and answering questions but other than that, showed no interest in participating in any conversation or topic of discussion. Paige inwardly frowned at the withdrawn behaviour. It was very un-Walter-like behaviour and as she turned to get Toby's opinion, she could see he was eyeing the genius too. Good. She wasn't the only one who'd noticed.

She shook herself free from the thoughts as she sipped her orange juice and looked at her diary again. She'd been putting together an agenda for the day to help keep track of tasks and so on. She was sure it would probably go out the window, but one could hope.

They were due to meet the seismologists at the cave system in about an hour from now. They still had time to pack all their equipment and discuss the best plan forward. They were on schedule. Which was a first.

"Do you feel that?" Walter asked after a moment of quiet. All eyes looked up to him in confusion.

"Feel what?" Paige found herself asking, her concern ratcheting up a notch. Walter sat up straight and held up a hand to pause and stay still and quiet. They did. But felt nothing.

"You can't feel that?" he asked again, disbelief written on his features. The team looked to one another, but no one could feel anything out of the ordinary.

"What are you feeling?" Toby asked around the scrambled eggs in his mouth, though his medical attention was trained solely on Walter. Said genius closed his eyes to isolate the feeling.

"It's like a low vibration. I can feel it here." He said as he pointed to his head. Just under his finger was the scar that had healed over the chip that had been unwillingly implanted into his brain. Paige looked to Toby, who was still focussed on Walter.

"Is it hurting?" he asked while taking his phone out of his pocket to check Walter's vitals.

"No, just feels like there's something vibrating and I can feel it here." Walter replied, opening his eyes again. "It's gone now." He added then spotted Toby's phone in his hands. "It wasn't the chip malfunctioning. That feels different. This was an external influence." He said quickly, safely assuming that the team had thought his chip was playing up.

Toby gave him a frown in return. It was a confused frown, the type you make when you're presented with a particularly perplexing mystery. "You can tell the difference now?" Toby asked, "it was only three weeks ago that you were complaining that you couldn't tell the difference between the scar healing and the chip inside." He added to clarify. He wasn't antagonising Walter or trying to belittle him. But he needed facts to come to a conclusion. Anything to do with the chip could mean so many different things, and only some were good. From a security point of view, if Collins were to hack the chip it could spell disaster for the whole team. So, any new behaviours were critical to record and understand before it bit them in the proverbial ass.

"I'm sure of it. It's like there's something its resonating with. The chip is not the source of this frequency. It's just receiving it." Walter explained and that made Paige even more anxious.

"Is someone trying to hack the chip?" She asked, fear filling her voice. She felt Walter turn to stare at her in surprise but of what she couldn't tell. Toby was analysing the data readouts on his phone.

"There's nothing to indicate that that's what is happening." He said. Happy stole the phone from Toby to check herself while Cabe looked over her shoulder.

"Then what's he picking up?" The agent asked, "Radio signals?" he added in his unique sense of enquiry.

"Nope, not got any showing up on the radio signals I can see." Happy said as her fingers flicked across the phone's screen and across her tablet to be sure. "Only the usual frequencies are broadcasting, and they've been going since before we got here. It wouldn't be an intermittent frequency and Walter would have felt it the minute we landed if it was." She added, as she continued scanning frequencies that were beyond or below radio waves.

It was only a few minutes later that the ground beneath their feet rumbled. Everyone at the table felt it. Paige had gripped her glass in her hands as her wide eyes found the others on the team. Cabe didn't seem phased, Toby and Happy were wide eyed but not panicking and Walter was looking around curiously.

"Was that a…?" Paige tried to ask but couldn't form the word.

"An earthquake?" Toby interjected for her. "I'm not sure." He answered as he stole a glance at his phone from over Happy's shoulder. She was checking the local seismology graphs for the area but there was nothing out of the ordinary registering.

"It's hard to tell from a phone that hasn't got the acute equipment we need to analyse that. We'll know more when we set up our stuff at the caves. I suggest we finish up here and get a move on." She said as she took her coffee mug from the table and downs the last dregs. The others gave varying murmurs of agreement before finishing off their breakfasts and moving off to collect their bags for the journey.

Paige followed suit, keeping a close eye on Walter as they went. This trip was already started to give her bad vibes. The quicker they finished this case, the better.


End file.
